A man suspected of killing British undercover soldier, Robert Nairac, in Northern Ireland was yesteray charged with his murder after almost 30 years on the run.

Kevin Crilly, 59, fled to America in the weeks after captain Nairac was executed by an IRA interrogation gang in May 1977, Newry Magistrates court heard.

He remained there for nearly three decades until he returned to his home town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh, using a different name.

But aided by a TV documentary investigation, detectives tracked him down and last year arrested and charged him with kidnapping and falsely imprisoning the 29-year-old Grenadier Guardsman.

At a routine bail hearing at Newry courthouse, prosecutors told the red-headed Crilly, from Lower Foughill Road, that he would now face a murder charge.

District Judge Austin Kennedy, who heard that two further suspects remain in the US, granted him bail.

After an hour delay to establish whether prosecutors would appeal the decision, the accused emerged from court, shielding his face with his jacket, and dived into the back of a waiting car.

Captain Nairac, originally from Gloucestershire, was questioned, tortured and then shot dead after being snatched from the car park of the Three Steps Inn at Drumintee outside Jonesborough and driven across the border to an isolated field at Ravensdale, Co Louth.

His remains have never been found amid claims from former IRA members that the body was disposed of at a local meat processing plant to hide the terrible injuries he suffered before death.

In the years after his disappearance, three men were convicted of his murder, but police have always said they were looking for more suspects.

Crilly was interviewed by detectives in the weeks after the incident but flew to the United States before officers could arrest him on suspicion of murder.

Judge Kennedy was told yesterday that the suspect had remained in the US for almost 30 years.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Investigating officer Detective Sergeant Barry Graham said that he assumed the name Declan Parr when he returned.

The officer explained that Crilly was adopted as a child and Parr was his birth name.

"The only reason he returned to Northern Ireland was because he was in a long-term relationship in America and that relationship had broken down," he said.

The officer told the judge that he could connect Crilly with the murder charge and the two other counts of kidnapping and false imprisonment.

Crilly, dressed in a black leather jacket, white check shirt and blue jeans, spoke only to acknowledge that he understood the charges that he was facing.

His defence team objected that the prosecution had given them no prior warning that the murder charge would be put to their client or that they would be objecting to his bail.

In applying for bail, the accused's lawyer claimed he had been living openly in Northern Ireland for four years prior to his arrest 18 months ago and that he had actually contacted detectives re-examining Troubles killings to tell them how to reach him.

He said his solicitor had rung the police's Historical Enquiries Team (HET) after the BBC documentary, in which Crilly was interviewed, was aired in 2007.

The prosecution barrister said that, in the programme, Crilly had admitted being in the Three Steps Inn on the night Capt Nairac disappeared and of driving one of the men subsequently convicted of the soldier's murder to the field where it is believed he was eventually executed.

Noting that Crilly had complied with all bail requirements since his original arrest in May 2008 and pointing out that, at that stage, the defendant was aware that the Public Prosecution Service was examining whether there were grounds for charging him with murder, Judge Kennedy rejected the prosecution objection to bail.

Capt Nairac was posthumously awarded the George Cross after reportedly refusing to break under intensive IRA interrogation despite being subjected to brutal torture.

As well as the three men previously convicted of the murder, another was found guilty of manslaughter and two others on charges of kidnap and withholding information.

Last year Crilly denied the two initial charges, but admitted driving one of the killers to the murder scene.

During yesterday's half-hour hearing, Mr Graham said two other suspects in the murder case had fled across the Atlantic at the same time as Crilly.

He said detectives were still attempting to track them down.

"Two others fled at the same time and we are actively pursuing them in America at the moment," he said.

Asked why the PPS had decided to pursue the murder charge 18 months after Crilly was accused on the two other counts, the officer explained that new clues had been discovered.

"Since that time, police have continued to investigate and more evidence has been uncovered and the PPS decided the threshold for a murder charge has now been reached," he said.

Recounting some of the background to the original murder probe, Mr Graham said Crilly's car was seized two weeks after the undercover soldier went missing.

A forensic examination found hair matching Capt Nairac's inside, he added.

Detectives were then granted a warrant to arrest Crilly but he had left the country before they caught up with him.